Baltic Dry Index. 825 +10
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
The court has emerged as the arch-defender of national
sovereignty in the EU system, vowing to strike down EU laws that breach
Germany’s Grundgesetz and issuing a string of rulings that have constrained
Berlin’s ability to take part in EMU bail-outs.
On display today, more of the insane asylum of the
EUSSR. Ironically, 68 years after Germany was crushed by America and the
British Empire nations, and as America turns itself into the USSR of America, it’s
Germany’s constitutional court that has become the last defender of rule of law
on either side of the Atlantic.
Below, would any sane, unbribed person want to
remain a member of the Bilderberger EUSSR. Stay long physical precious metals
held outside of the EU banking system. From the right side of the English
Channel Europe looks set to explode with the arrival of autumn.
For as long as but a hundred of us
remain alive, never will we on any conditions be
brought under Brussels/Berlin rule. It is not for glory, nor riches, nor
honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest
man gives up but with life itself.
With apologies
to The Declaration of Arbroath 1320.
Germany's brother gladiators battle over euro destiny in constitutional court
Germany's two heavyweight members on the European Central Bank have fought an unprecedented duel at the country’s top court, taking opposing sides in a landmark case that could make or break the euro.
Jens
Weidmann, the Bundesbank’s hard-line chief, testified that the ECB’s bond
rescue plan for Spain and Italy risks “significant losses” for Germany’s
central bank and grave damage to its credibility. “Ultimately, it is the German
taxpayer who carries the risk,” he said.
Mr
Weidmann said the bond scheme, known as Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT),
blurs the line between fiscal and monetary policy and encroaches on the terrain
of parliaments. It leaves the ECB with the task of carrying out rescue
operations that is the proper responsibility of the euro bail-out fund and
compromises the bank’s independence.
The
two-day hearings at the constitutional court in Karlsruhe will investigate the
legality of the OMT, the “game-changer” that defused the EMU debt crisis last
July and has been so successful that no country has yet needed to use it. The
case stems from complaints by 37,000 citizens, including the Left Party, More
Democracy and eurosceptic professors, most arguing that the ECB is financing
bankrupt states.
While the
court has no jurisdiction over the ECB, it could prohibit the Bundesbank from
taking part in bond purchases. This amounts to the same thing, since the OMT
would collapse if Germany stepped aside.
Chief
Justice Andreas Vosskuhle said the court would adhere strictly to the law,
regardless of whether ECB actions have been successful, “otherwise the end
would justify the means – such an idea would go against the central tenets of a
democratic state grounded in constitutional law".
The
court has emerged as the arch-defender of national sovereignty in the EU
system, vowing to strike down EU laws that breach Germany’s Grundgesetz and
issuing a string of rulings that have constrained Berlin’s ability to take part
in EMU bail-outs.
----The task of defending the ECB fell to Jorg Asmussen, Germany’s member on the executive board, and a former university friend of Mr Weidmann.
He said
the ECB’s actions were “necessary, effective, and within the mandate” and
denied that the OMT is tantamount to monetary financing of deficits. Recounting
the dramatic events of mid-2012, he said fears of EMU break-up had caused Spain
and Italian borrowing to spiral to levels that reflected currency risk. Action
was needed to safeguard monetary union.
“Britain’s
financial authorities were advising financial institutions to be prepared in
the event of the euro area collapsing,” he said.
More
UK challenges 'illegal' EU power to ban short-selling
The Government has challenged new European Union powers to regulate financial markets as "unlawful" and an "institutional revolution" by the back door, during a legal challenge in Europe's Luxembourg court.
Britain
has gone to the European Court of Justice to overturn powers allowing a
Paris-based regulator to ban short-selling as part of a campaign of legal
challenges to rein in growing EU powers over financial regulation.
The
European Securities and Markets Authority, or Esma, was given the unprecedented
powers to ban short-selling after Britain lost a battle to stop the move and
was outvoted in a council of EU finance ministers last year.
Jemima
Stratford QC, the barrister representing the Government in the Luxembourg court
challenge, insisted that the power, which is unique among Europe's regulatory
agencies, was an illegal power grab in breach of the EU's treaties.
"There
is a short point at the heart of this case. It is that the extensive discretion
given to Esma is contrary to the institutional balance laid down in the
treaties," she told the ECJ.
----Hubert Legal, the head of the legal service at the Council of the EU and most senior Brussels lawyer, argued that the question got to the heart of the debate about how the Union adapted to new challenges, within the existing Lisbon Treaty that entered into force in 2009.
"This
is a case that we cannot afford to get wrong. It is not a case of symbolic
importance only but a vital one for the ability of the Union to play its role
in economic governance," he said.
More
French airport strikes cause holiday chaos
British holidaymakers have been frustrated by cancellations and delays of up to nine hours as a strike by French air traffic controllers continues to cause havoc today.
By
Melanie Hall 7:08AM BST 12 Jun 2013
The
three-day strike by members of the European Transport Workers Federation began
in France on Tuesday, forcing Ryanair to cancel 200 flights yesterday and 244
more today, while easyJet scrapped 128 flights, mainly to France.
Other
airlines including British Airways were also forced to cancel a number of
flights, and delays of up to nine hours across airlines were reported because
of the dispute, which saw the number of movements across French airspace being
cut by 50 per cent.
According
to the International Air Transport Association, which represents 241 scheduled
carriers, the action saw 400,000 minutes of delays across Europe yesterday as
flight were diverted onto alternative routes.
The
disruption is likely to worsen today when the strike spreads to Belgium,
Slovakia and Hungary, where other members of the European Transport Workers
Federation will join the action.
More
State broadcaster ERT shut down as Greece seeks more savings
A government spokesman described the
Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation as a 'haven of waste'
Tuesday 11 June 2013 18.58 BST
Greek state
TV and radio were gradually pulled off the air late on Tuesday, hours after the
government said it would temporarily close all state-run broadcasts and lay off
about 2,500 workers as part of a cost-cutting drive demanded by the bailed-out
country's international creditors.
TV and
radio stations of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, or ERT, were pulled
off the air in several parts of the country from about 11pm (9pm BST), about an
hour before the government said all signals would go dead, although satellite
broadcasts continued.
The
conservative-led government said ERT would reopen "as soon as
possible" with a new, smaller workforce. It wasn't immediately clear how
long that would take, and whether all stations would reopen.
"Congratulations
to the Greek government," newscaster Antonis Alafogiorgos said toward the
end of ERT's main TV live broadcast. "This is a blow to democracy."
----Thousands of media workers and supporters protested against the closure outside the company's headquarters in the Athens suburb of Aghia Paraskevi. Unions representing ERT workers at three terrestrial TV stations, one satellite station and its national and regional radio network said they would keep the stations on air. Protesting employees were joined by opposition politicians and union leaders. Both minority government partners of the ruling conservative coalition condemned the suspension.
Government
spokesman Simos Kedikoglou – a former state TV journalist – described ERT as a
"haven of waste". He said its employees would be compensated.
Kedikoglou
said in a televised statement aired on the state broadcaster: "At a time
when the Greek people are enduring sacrifices, there is no room for delay,
hesitation or tolerance for sacred cows.
More
We end with yet more on our ever more lawless age.
Yes it’s the banksters again. It’s really not their fault. Like poor old Oscar
Wilde, they can resist anything except temptation, especially the ability to steal
from the Muppets. But don’t expect America’s secret eavesdroppers to bring them
to book. Not at least while they can be persuaded to keep donating money to
political parties.
"We
have reason to believe you have committed an offence."
City
of London, 1960s parking ticket.
Traders Said to Rig Currency Rates to Profit Off Clients
By Liam Vaughan, Gavin Finch
& Ambereen Choudhury - Jun 12, 2013 12:00 AM GMT
Traders at some of the world’s biggest banks manipulated benchmark
foreign-exchange rates used to set the value of trillions of dollars of
investments, according to five dealers with knowledge of the practice. Employees have been front-running client orders and rigging WM/Reuters rates by pushing through trades before and during the 60-second windows when the benchmarks are set, said the current and former traders, who requested anonymity because the practice is controversial. Dealers colluded with counterparts to boost chances of moving the rates, said two of the people, who worked in the industry for a total of more than 20 years.
The behavior occurred daily in the spot foreign-exchange market and has been going on for at least a decade, affecting the value of funds and derivatives, the two traders said. The Financial Conduct Authority, Britain’s markets supervisor, is considering opening a probe into potential manipulation of the rates, according to a person briefed on the matter.
“The FX market is like the Wild West,” said James McGeehan, who spent 12 years at banks before co-founding Framingham, Massachusetts-based FX Transparency LLC, which advises companies on foreign-exchange trading, in 2009. “It’s buyer beware.”
The $4.7-trillion-a-day currency market, the biggest in the financial system, is one of the least regulated. The inherent conflict banks face between executing client orders and profiting from their own trades is exacerbated because most currency trading takes place away from exchanges
More
“The world is a place that’s gone from being flat to round to crooked.”
The Banker, with apologies to Mad Magazine.
At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday final figures were: Registered 41.76 Moz,
Eligible 122.62 Moz, Total 164.38 Moz.
Crooks and
Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, the ever more lawless USSR of A. I wonder what the watchers have
on House Speaker Boehner that he would come out so quickly and so vehemently in
defence of the indefensible under America’s written constitution. Lacking a
written constitution in the UK, Britain’s spooks have licence to kill as it
were, just don’t get caught. Armed with the tapes and the data mined material,
you can always get other evidence for any trial, assuming you don’t just don’t
want to blackmail something from them. Both countries spooks have access to bank and
tax records, plus anything leaving a digital record.
It will be interesting to
see what else has been leaked from the land of the once free. The latest big
lie is that it was all authorised and properly scrutinised. A lie likely to
come crashing down in the next round of new articles sure to come out. With
both US political parties deeply mired in this growing scandal, it looks like a
reinvigorated Tea Party time lies ahead.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Obama's snooping -- this is America?
Nat Hentoff says his late immigrant parents would be shocked by today's headlines
My Jewish parents had changed their lives – inner and outer – by coming to America. When their son was old enough to go to school, they were determined not to send him to the prestigious Hebrew school on the street next to where they lived in Boston.No, the boy was to be more fully Americanized by taking a sizable walk to the William Lloyd Garrison public elementary school in the neighborhood.
They are no longer here, but I can imagine their hurt had they read this on the front page of the June 7 Wall Street Journal: “The National Security Agency’s monitoring of Americans includes customer records from the three major phone networks as well as emails and Web searches, and the agency also has cataloged credit-card transactions” (“U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove,” Siobhan Gorman, Evan Perez and Janet Hook).
I would also have shown them a startling story by U.S. reporter and constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who covers American civil liberties et al. for the British newspaper the Guardian. He found a top-secret Obama program run by the NSA that had direct access to the Internet systems of “Google, Facebook, Apple and other U.S. Internet giants” (“NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others,” Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, June 6).
Included are huge quantities of personal information about us, such as “search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats.”
The program is called PRISM.
Were they here, my parents might have asked, “What happened to America?”
“His name,” I would tell them, “is Barack Obama.”
More
House Speaker John Boehner: NSA Leaker a ‘Traitor’
Jun 11,
2013 7:00am
House Speaker
John Boehner today called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a “traitor” who put
Americans at risk by releasing classified information to the media.
“He’s a
traitor,” the highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives said
in an extensive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “The disclosure
of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what
our capabilities are. And it’s a giant violation of the law.”
Boehner
endorsed President Obama’s characterization of two programs, which allow the
NSA to gather information about phone calls made in the U.S. as well as
information on foreign suspects collected from major internet companies, as
critical to the government’s ability to fight terrorism. He said that there are
“clear safeguards” built into the programs to protect Americans.
More
Ron Paul: I’m worried that the government might kill Edward Snowden with a drone
June 11, 2013 | 6:30 pm
During an
interview with FOX Business, former Rep. Ron Paul explained that he was
concerned about the well-being of National Security Agency whistle-blower
Edward Snowden.
“I’m
worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile
or a drone missile,” Paul explained. “I mean we live in a bad time where
American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed, but the
gentlemen is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.”
Paul
added that there were no signs of Snowden defecting to a foreign country, which
meant that he was not really a threat.
“It’s a
shame that we are in an age where people who tell the truth about what the
government is doing gets into trouble,” he concluded.
More
Europe warns US: you must respect the privacy of our citizens
EU officials demand answers on what
data snooping programmes entail and whether they breach human rights
Tuesday 11 June 2013 23.00 BST
European Union officials
have demanded "swift and concrete answers" to their requests for
assurances from the US that its mass data surveillance programmes do
not breach the fundamental privacy rights of European
citizens.The European commission's vice-president, Viviane Reding, has sent a letter with seven detailed questions to the US attorney general, Eric Holder Jr, demanding explanations about Prism and other American data snooping programmes.
Reding warns him that "given the gravity of the situation and the serious concerns expressed in public opinion on this side of the Atlantic" she expects detailed answers before they meet at an EU-US justice ministers' meeting in Dublin on Friday.
She also warns Holder that people's trust that the rule of law will be respected – including a high level of privacy protection for both US and EU citizens – is essential to the growth of the digital economy, including transatlantic business and the nature of the US response could affect the whole transatlantic relationship.
In the letter, released to the Guardian, Reding details her serious concerns that the Americans are "accessing and processing, on a large scale, the data of EU citizens using major US online service providers". She says programmes such as Prism, and the laws that authorise them, could have "grave adverse consequences for the fundamental rights of EU citizens"
The EU's action came as the first constitutional challenge in the US to the widespread surveillance of American citizens was laid down. In a lawsuit filed in New York, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the US government of a process that was "akin to snatching every American's address book".
The ACLU's lawsuit claimed the National Security Agency's acquisition of phone records of millions of Verizon users violated the first and fourth amendments, which guarantee citizens' right to association, speech and to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
More
I am a most unhappy
man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is
controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated.
The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of
a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most
completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no
longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction
and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a
small group of dominant men.
Woodrow
Wilson
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished May:
DJIA: +142 Up. NASDAQ: +144 Up. SP500: +177 Up. The Fed’s
Final Bubble continues. But hurricanes and tornadoes appear. Getting out first
beats getting out last.
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